Notable Literary Deaths in 2024

To the members of the literary community we lost this year, we say a last thank you, and goodbye. You will be missed.

*

Poet, novelist, and critic Fred Chappell died on January 4 at the age of 87.

Bestselling celebrity biographer Anne Edwards died on January 20 at the age of 96.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Kiowa and American novelist N. Scott Momaday died on January 24 at the age of 89.

Lawrence L. Langer, scholar of Holocaust literature, died on January 29. He was 94.

Novelist and short story writer Ellen Gilchrist, author of Victory Over Japan, died on January 30 at the age of 88.

Children’s book illustrator and author Petra Mathers died on February 6 at the age of 78.

Award-winning children’s book author Kate Banks died on February 24 at the age of 64.

Comic book artist Ramona Fradon died on February 24 at the age of 97.

Alta, poet and founder of the country’s first feminist press, Shameless Hussy, died on March 10 at the age of 81.

Novelist, journalist, and screenwriter Dan Wakefield died on March 13. He was 91.

Poet and biographer Neeli Cherkovski died on March 19 at the age of 78.

Prolific science fiction novelist Vernor Vinge died on March 20 at the age of 79.

Laurent de Brunhoff, who continued the Babar the Elephant series, which his father created, for almost 70 years, died on March 22 at the age of 98.

Marjorie Perloff, scholar of experimental poetry, died on March 24. She was 92.

Iraqi-born Israeli writer Sami Michael died on April 1 at the age of 97.

Maryse Condé, the Guadaloupean novelist, playwright, essayist, and “Grande Dame of World Letters,” died on April 2 at the age of 90.

Kaleidoscopic novelist John Barth died on April 2 at the age of 93.

Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian in the Cupboard, died on April 4 at the age of 94.

Comics creator and historian Trina Robbins died on April 10 at the age of 85.

Faith Ringgold, multimedia artist and writer and illustrator of children’s books, died on April 13. She was 93.

Helen Vendler, giant of poetry criticism, died on April 23 at the age of 90.

Psychologist, journalist, author, and biographer Lesley Hazleton died on April 29 at the age of 78.

Popular historical novelist C.J. Sansom died on April 27 at the age of 71.

Novelist, memoirist, and poet Paul Auster died on April 30 at the age of 77.

Poet David Shapiro died on May 4. He was 77.

Canadian author, Nobel Prize winner, and master of the short story Alice Munro died on May 13. She was 92.

Comic book artist Don Perlin died on May 14 at the age of 94.

Caleb Carr, author of The Alienist, died on May 23 at the age of 68.

Influential French publisher Eric Hazan died on June 6. He was 87.

Novelist and playwright Shay Youngblood died on June 11 at the age of 64.

Thomas J. McCormack, longtime editorial director of St. Martin’s Press, died on June 15. He was 92.

Literary critic Frederick Crews died on June 21 at the age of 91.

Towering Albanian writer Ismail Kadare died on July 1 at the age of 88.

Pioneering queer cartoonist and novelist Mary Wings died on July 3 at the age of 75.

Poet Stanley Moss died on July 5 at the age of 99.

Writer Gail Lumet Buckley died on July 18 at the age of 86.

Author and journalist Jill Schary Robinson died on July 19 at the age of 88.

Alexander Waugh, composer, columnist, historian, and part of “one of Britain’s greatest literary dynasties,” died on July 22 at the age of 60.

Francine Pascal, author of the Sweet Valley High books, died on July 28 at the age of 92.

Irish writer Edna O’Brien died on July 28 at the age of 93.

Bestselling memoirist Barbara Howar died on August 2. She was 89.

Music writer and biographer Charles R. Cross died on August 9 at the age of 67.

Poet and author Hettie Jones died on August 13. She was 90.

Award-winning comic book artist John Cassaday died on September 9 at the age of 52.

Prominent Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury died on September 15. He was 76.

Journalist Neil King Jr., author of American Ramble, died on September 17 at the age of 65.

Prolific, bestselling thriller writer Nelson DeMille died on September 17. He was 81.

Novelist Ella Leffland died on September 18 at the age of 92.

Literary theorist Fredric Jameson died on September 22 at the age of 90.

Writer and fly fisherman John Gierach died on October 3 at the age of 77.

Postmodern genius and legendary writers’ writer Robert Coover died on October 5. He was 92.

Autobiographical novelist Lore Segal died on October 7 at the age of 96.

Bestselling memoirist Lily Ebert, who survived the Holocaust, died on October 9. She was 100.

Chilean novelist, screenplay writer, and playwright Antonio Skármeta died on October 15 at the age of 83.

Charles Brandt, author of the true-crime bestseller I Heard You Paint Houses, died on October 22 at the age of 82.

Gary Indiana, the prickly polymath with a dozen lives and careers to his name, died on October 23 at the age of 74.

Dorothy Allison, lesbian feminist activist, force of nature, and author of Bastard Out of Carolina, died on November 6. She was 75.

Bruce Degen, who illustrated the Magic School Bus books, died on November 7. He was 79.

Hannah Arendt scholar Jerome Kohn died on November 8 at the age of 93.

Trinidadian-American writer Elizabeth Nunez died on November 8 at the age of 80.

Scholar, critic, and poet Sandra M. Gilbert, co-author of The Madwoman in the Attic, died on November 10 at the age of 87.

Popular Japanese poet and translator Shuntaro Tanikawa died on November 13 at the age of 92.

Bestselling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, author of A Woman of Substance, died on November 24. She was 91.

Bestselling Chinese-language romance novelist Chiung Yao died on December 4 at the age of 86.

Beloved poet and star of the Black Arts Movement Nikki Giovanni died on December 9. She was 81.